By David Putulan

While the Oil Palm Industry in Papua New Guinea is preaching millions of kina in profit, it has come at a cost to the local inhabitants that once use to occupy the areas under oil palm. I am not talking about the environmental cost as loss of biodiversity through mono-culture is inevitable. The essence of this article is about the erosion of the social structures that forms the foundation for functional Melanesian communities. These social structures cannot properly exist when people are displaced from their land and forced to live another way of life.